Thirty Days at Hard Labor
About Thirty Days at Hard Labor
Beatrice's father will not let her marry Jack Deering, who has never worked. Jack signs a paper promising to hold a job for thirty days. He ends up as a halberdier in a restaurant, standing in armor on the stairs, then waits on the father's table in the coat of mail. The father asks if he has been discharged. He has not. Beatrice asks for another napkin.
Cast & crew
More about Thirty Days at Hard Labor
Oscar Apfel directed for Edison, from O. Henry's story The Halberdier of the Little Rheinschloss. General Film released the one-reeler in the United States on 9 January 1912. Italian Wikipedia lists 300 meters and about 16 minutes. The same story was filmed again as You're Fired (1919), directed by James Cruze.
Themes
Making
Edison turned the O. Henry restaurant gag into a one-reel comedy about a rich idler who has to keep any job for a month.
Preservation
A copy is on the Internet Archive.
Notes
- Mary Fuller plays Beatrice. Harold M. Shaw plays Jack Deering. Robert Brower plays her father, Mr. Langdon. William Wadsworth plays the restaurant owner.
- In O. Henry's story the idle young man is hired to stand on the stairs in armor as scenery, then serves the table when the family walks in.
- An Internet Archive copy is filed as silent-thirty-days-at-hard-labor.
Scenes
- Jack signs the paper that gives him thirty days to find work.
- He serves Beatrice's father in a coat of mail and is asked whether he has been fired.
Influenced by
- O. Henry's story The Halberdier of the Little Rheinschloss
Influenced
- You're Fired (1919), James Cruze's later film of the same story
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-thirty-days-at-hard-labor)
